Painful Lights
by JuseaPeterson
Summary: A Hunter and Kelly Christmas one shot.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

_Author's Note: I got this from The 12 Pains of Christmas and thought that Hunter was one of the good choices for something like this. Merry Christmas, or Happy Hanukah or whatever it is that you celebrate at this time of year._

**Painful Lights**

Hunter came back from the Academy, Blake had asked if he could leave early so that he and Tori and their kids could go and get a tree. As he entered his house he saw the box of lights Kelly had left out for him. She had asked if he could get them up before she got home from Storm Chargers. He had agreed because what could be easier than putting lights up? He picked up the piece of paper Kelly had left him that had the sketch of what he needed to do on it. He knew this was going to be easy.

The blonde ninja went into the garage to get the ladder. Unfortunately the ladder was blocked by a bunch of junk that Hunter had let Dustin put in here. Finally after getting to the ladder he grabbed it only to be hit on the head a second later, as an extra can that was on top of the ladder fell on his head. Kicking the can away he rubbed his head trying to soothe the pain. Finally he picked up the ladder and headed outside.

He set it up against a part of the house that made the roof nearer to him. If it wasn't for the fact that someone would wonder how he made it up here with no ladder he would have just jumped. After he set it up he went back in to bring all the lights outside.

Finally he had everything that he needed and all he had to do was get the lights up. He looked at the box; did people bring the whole thing up or just a part of the lights? Who could he ask? Blake was busy looking for a tree. And asking advice like that, he just didn't want to ask the others. Tori was a choice, but she was with Blake as well, so…that left himself.

He picked up a box of lights and climbed up the ladder. He got on the roof and opened up the box of lights and took them out. Then he realized that he had left the list inside. Slowly Hunter went back down the ladder and set the lights down and went back inside. Finding the piece of paper he went back outside and went back up the ladder. He got to the top and then realized that the lights were at the bottom. Shaking his head he descended, no one was going to know about this. He picked up the lights and went back up the ladder.

It was then that he realized the light strand was all tangled. How it had gotten tangled was beyond him, he had just set it down, unless it had been from before after all Kelly had gotten the box from her parents. He started untangling it, which was harder than it looked. He finally had the whole strand straightened when he heard his phone ring. He pulled it from his pocket and answered it.

"Hunter?"

"Kelly?"

"You okay?

"Yeah why?"

"You sound frustrated."

"I'm fine, there's nothing to worry about."

"Alright. I just wanted to see how it was coming with the lights."

"Great. I told you I can do it."

"So I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah."

"Love you."

"Love you."

He hung up with his wife and looked at the cord. No one had ever said that putting up lights was a bit more work than it sounded like. Nevertheless he could do it. He grabbed the strand and headed up the ladder. He started laying it out across the roof and easily was down at the other end of the house when he saw the end he had just placed on the roof fall off. He looked down the way he had come and saw that the strand of lights was now on the ground. He swore as he got off the ladder annoyed that they hadn't stayed up. What would it take? A miracle?

Fine if he couldn't do that he'd work on putting the lights around the garage door. He picked up another strand and started on putting it around the garage door, however he noticed that they were falling off quickly. He needed something to hold them in place, but what?

The blonde haired ninja headed inside and began looking all over for something to use. Tape obviously wouldn't work. How was he supposed to know what to use for lights, he had never done them before. Just then he heard the door open, his body tensed up for a moment until he realized that it was Kelly. Within a couple of minutes she was in the kitchen where he was.

"Hi Hunter, how are things going?"

Hunter turned and looked at his wife whose belly had only just started showing with the promise of a new life on the way. "Fine."

"Did you look at all the things in the box I gave you? I'm pretty sure my Dad left a staple gun in there, that's the easiest to use on a roof."

Hunter exhaled, "Thanks," and headed outside with Kelly following him. "How were things at the store?"

"Same. Dustin helped out a lot as usual so; the day went by pretty quickly."

"Good."

"I take it putting up the lights isn't as easy as you thought?"

"I can do it." He looked through the box and finally pulled out a staple gun.

"Do you need help?"  
"No, I'm good."

"Alright, well I'll be inside if you need anything."

"Alright." Hunter went up on the roof and began using the staple gun to stick the lights to the roof. Finally he was done and he stood back, thankful that he was done with that. Now he had to do the lights around the windows and garage door. However there was resistance there as well—the stable gun wasn't a good idea to use, so he went back to the box and looked for something else. He finally found these hooks that were sticky when you pulled off the back.

He put all of the ones on the windows up and then the garage. Satisfied he nodded, thankful that he was done with the lights just as it had gotten dark and now was the time to turn them on and check out how it looked. He went over to the plug but then realized that it didn't reach the outlet. Fine he just needed an extension cord; he went inside to get one running into Kelly as she was heading outside.

"Where are you going?"

"I was going to come and get you for dinner."

"I'm not through yet. Do we have any extension cords?"

Kelly thought for a minute, "I don't think so, you need one?"

"Yeah."

"I'll go and get one."

"No, I'll do it; I need to get away from those things."

So Hunter went to the store and got some extension cords. Thankfully there weren't any real long lines yet, just annoying people in front of him who kept hitting a little stuffed animal that played music. Finally after a bunch of traffic Hunter pulled into his driveway and got out so he could plug in the lights and go inside. He plugged it in and lights went on. He couldn't believe it, it worked, it had finally…it had been too lucky. There lights were on, but only about 30 of them, after that it was dark. Swearing as he unplugged them he headed up the ladder with another light bulb and changed the one that was out. After he got back down to the ground he turned it back on to find that more had been fixed, but not everything.

After continuing the process of changing light bulbs about 5 times Hunter turned them on and stood back, the lights were on and they looked fine. He set the staple gun back in the box and then turned and looked up at the lights again. This time the one closest to the plug was blinking. Was it supposed to blink? He grabbed the box and looked at it but didn't see a single thing that said it should be blinking. He exhaled and then he looked up again hoping he had been wrong, but instead of a blinking light he was once more faced with no lights at all.

He looked in the box for another light; there was none; which meant going to the store again. Maybe if he gave the lights a little jolt it would start it. He went to the light bulb and looked around and then tried to add a little jolt to the stupid light bulb. He felt the power surge through him and then he noticed that everything looked darker. Stepping away Hunter cursed when he realized what happened. As he opened the door he called out to Kelly, "Where's a flashlight? I blew a fuse."

"Hunter! How could you have blown a fuse?"

"It just happened alright. Those stupid lights." He hit the wall.

"Hunter. Don't hit the wall." He turned to see Kelly with two flashlights; one on and the other off and handed towards him. He took it from her and then she signaled for him to follow, "Let's go fix the fuse."

They both went down to the basement and within no time had the lights back on. After getting back upstairs and putting the flashlights away Kelly looked at Hunter, "How about I help?"

"Kelly, you're pregnant."

"Only a few months, I can still do things." Hunter sighed and folded his arms. Kelly raised an eyebrow, "You're not going to scare me away with that. Now, what else do you need to do?

"I have all up, but there's a light bulb out."

"I'll go to the store and get some."

"Fine."

Kelly shook her head and headed off to the store. Hunter began pacing as he waited for Kelly. Next time Blake was going to help him with the lights. No way was he going through that nightmare alone again. Within half an hour Kelly had come back with a box of light bulbs. Quick enough he had it replaced, then they both stood back as he turned it on.

"Wow, they look really good." Kelly said smiling.

"Inventing Christmas lights was not a brilliant thing."

Kelly suppressed a laugh, "Small problems occur when you do lights. But you did a good job."

Exhaling Hunter uncrossed his arms, "I suppose."

"You did." She said as she placed her hand on his arm.

"Thanks." Hunter said with a smile.

"Now, are you ready for some dinner?"

"Yes." Hunter and Kelly shared a kiss before heading back into the house leaving all that is a pain about putting up Christmas lights behind him and looking forward to a meal and quiet time with the woman he loved.


End file.
